When I started brainstorming this list my mind immediately gravitated towards all the yahoos that have annoyed me during my time in the professional world. I thought of the warehouse worker that sexually harassed me during my time as a temp worker and the supervisor who told me I should be more understanding of said warehouses workers feeling when I complained about the aforementioned harassment. I thought of the co-worker who baby-talked to his wife everyday on the phone within earshot and then numerous people who would claim to have "lost" important e-mails I sent them. But then I thought, no, I don't want to list all those characters, that kind of idiocy is best left at the office.

Today I want to list just one person, she is the most memorable because she annoyed me so much that I put up a bookcase between our desks so I wouldn't have to look at her. She called it "The Great Wall of Emily". She was loud, over-enthusiastic, and wore mini-skirts with rainbow socks to work. Also she called avocados, avo. In short, she annoyed me. A lot.

I literally asked my bible study to pray for me to get through the situation. True story.

Prayers must've worked because eventually she became one of my good friends. Somewhere along the way, our differences became the glue that brought us together and instead of perserverating on everything she did wrong I got the memo and dug the plank out of my eye. We've been friends for a decade now and she will always be my most memorable co-worker because when I look at her I see how my own narrow-mindedness almost caused me to miss out on one of the kindest, most fun people I know. Nowadays I try not to make the same mistake twice.